The high incidence of keratoconjunctivitis sicca in the population of postmenopausal women is attended by symptoms ranging from mild foreign body sensation to frank pain and visual loss due to ocular surface abnormalities.
The standard treatment with artificial lubricants, which provides temporary symptomatic relief in most cases does not, however, address the cause of the dry eyes. While Fried and deRoetth have anecdotally described treatment of post menopausal females with dry eye syndrome using oral premarin therapy, the oral or parenteral administration of estrogen frequently produces vaginal bleeding, breast tenderness and other undesired effects. Further, such oral or parenteral administration implicates the entire body structure in an indeterminate effort to secure an effect in a localized area (the eye), in the absence of any data relating the level of estrogen introduced into the blood stream to the level, if any, resulting in the tear fluid. Conservative medicine would indicate the desirability of limiting the specific effect of the hormone to the recipient site if possible.